Your most-unusual critter from the Andaman Sea
- Thread starter Bowmouth
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OnTheSpot
Contributor
The first season I was here (1999/2000), I was tour leader on a liveaboard. We would often have a couple of Japanese customers and the dive center always sent a Japanese DM for them. I remember them being obsessed with finding Purple Fire Gobies. At Fantasea Reef, the Japanese would dive a completely different direction to everyone else because the DM knew where to find the gobies. I first saw the elusive purple fire goby at Koh Bon at about 32m off the south side of the ridge, and I have to say it's a gorgeous little fish.
Purple Fire Goby
Purple Fire Goby
SCUBAJENNIFER
Contributor
Bowmouth:Just curious what your most unusual critter find was in the Andaman Sea. Only ONE animal is allowed and NO animal may be mentioned twice.
I'll start:
Purple "Rhinopias Aphanes" at Black Rock in Myanmar.
I'm soo jealous, it was SOOO rough when we went to Black Rock, we only made dive and got the heck out of there...I didn't get to see anything cool!
I know it's not that uncommon but my favorite thing I saw in the Andaman sea was the zebra shark.
SCUBAJENNIFER:
Black Rock is a place that many times will surprise you; sometimes not much going on at all (no fish, no critters and no big animals), other times great manta action or fantastic schooling fish, yet another time lots of cool small creatures. Can be very rough and can be supercalm, currents can be wicked too!
Zebra sharks ARE beautiful and not so common anymore as they were 5-6 years ago. Still, there's a good chance you'll see them while doing a liveaboard trip in the Andaman Sea.
SCUBAJENNIFER
Contributor
Bowmouth:Black Rock is a place that many times will surprise you; sometimes not much going on at all (no fish, no critters and no big animals), other times great manta action or fantastic schooling fish, yet another time lots of cool small creatures. Can be very rough and can be supercalm, currents can be wicked too!
Zebra sharks ARE beautiful and not so common anymore as they were 5-6 years ago. Still, there's a good chance you'll see them while doing a liveaboard trip in the Andaman Sea.
It was our last day of an 11 day trip...and we were at Breakfast Bend in the Similans and it just swam right in front of us...settled to the floor and just stayed there for 10 minutes posing for us! It was awesome.
I must say - I've seen many leopard sharks but never a zebra.
SCUBAJENNIFER
Contributor
Kim:
I"m not sure why they call it that Kim...but that's it's name
MoonWrasse
Contributor
They're Zebra sharks - Leopard sharks are present in Northern California, and that confused me for awhile as they aren't the same.
They're called Zebra sharks, as I recall, because their young have stripes.
I've gotten close enough to kiss them on the lips, but restrained myself as it's not a good idea to touch the sea critters
Zebra shark article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra_shark
Leopard shark article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triakis_semifasciata
They're called Zebra sharks, as I recall, because their young have stripes.
I've gotten close enough to kiss them on the lips, but restrained myself as it's not a good idea to touch the sea critters
Zebra shark article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra_shark
Leopard shark article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triakis_semifasciata
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